American TV Series Research Articles

The role and scope of word combinations in the American TV series Shameless: On the basis of word combinations and free word combinations

The role and scope of word combinations in the American TV series Shameless: On the basis of word combinations and free word combinations

Rethinking Gender Stereotype in Conflict Talk

Gender stereotype has major influence on related academic studies; however, more and more researchers provide empirical evidences to refute the clear gender differences in real communication (Holmes, 2008). Therefore it is necessary to rethink the role of gender stereotype when examine cross-gender communication. This paper examines the typical traits of gender stereotype in the context of cross-gender conflict talk, and they are swear words, intensifiers and interruption. It is a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, using 63 scenes of cross-gender conflict talks from American TV series The Newsroom. The results show that the influence of gender stereotype should be downplayed, and the dichotomy method may not be appropriate for research. A non-biased attitude is emphasized in order to treat the gender issue objectively. This research combines the analysis of linguistic devices with turn-taking mechanism, and it may provide a new angle for future research.

Tłumacz rusza w drogę – o nieprzetłumaczalności kultury

The purpose of the present article is to direct attention to a rather infrequent perspective on translating culturally-embedded concepts. It constitutes an attempt to grade the instances of cultural untranslatability in a source text from translator’s perspective by employing as examples a few culturally humorous utterances from the American TV series The Big Bang Theory . In the initial part of the substantial theoretical section the article launches into the discussion over the position of culture in translation theory, recalling the “cultural turn” of the 1980s and touching upon the relationship between language and culture, while also enumerating the prevalent techniques for translating culture-bound concepts. Since culture can often be reflected in humour, the ensuing part investigates its varieties and approaches to humour in translation. The third part of the section is a discussion over the concept of untranslatability. It ponders upon the dichotomy into linguistic and cultural untranslatability and its purposefulness in the light of the language-kulture debate in linguistic studies. It also offers an insight into approaches to untranslatability, leading to the discussion over its absoluteness and/or gradability. Based on the foregoing, the latter section offers an attempt at grading the instances of untranslatability on the basis of culture-bound humour from The Big Bang Theory TV series. By presenting three examples from the series, the chapter introduces three categories of (un)translatable utterances: culture bumps, complex linguistic hurdles and culture clashes.

Tłumacz rusza w drogę – o nieprzetłumaczalności kultury

The purpose of the present article is to direct attention to a rather infrequent perspective on translating culturally-embedded concepts. It constitutes an attempt to grade the instances of cultural untranslatability in a source text from translator’s perspective by employing as examples a few culturally humorous utterances from the American TV series The Big Bang Theory . In the initial part of the substantial theoretical section the article launches into the discussion over the position of culture in translation theory, recalling the “cultural turn” of the 1980s and touching upon the relationship between language and culture, while also enumerating the prevalent techniques for translating culture-bound concepts. Since culture can often be reflected in humour, the ensuing part investigates its varieties and approaches to humour in translation. The third part of the section is a discussion over the concept of untranslatability. It ponders upon the dichotomy into linguistic and cultural untranslatability and its purposefulness in the light of the language-kulture debate in linguistic studies. It also offers an insight into approaches to untranslatability, leading to the discussion over its absoluteness and/or gradability. Based on the foregoing, the latter section offers an attempt at grading the instances of untranslatability on the basis of culture-bound humour from The Big Bang Theory TV series. By presenting three examples from the series, the chapter introduces three categories of (un)translatable utterances: culture bumps, complex linguistic hurdles and culture clashes.

The Wire as seen from France

This paper analyses the reception of the American TV series The Wire in the French context as part of a long, transatlantic conversation rooted in two histories and two social and political ‘models’. It focuses on educated audiences as well as on youth living in poor neighbourhoods; it also attempts to gauge the audiovisual references used by French viewers of the series. It shows how the series fuels a socially stratified sociological imaginary but also directly tackles ethno-racial issues that are still largely unaddressed in French debates.

Digging up the frequency of phrasal verbs in English for the Police: the case of "up"

The present study focuses on the frequency of phrasal verbs with the particle up in the context of crime and police investigative work. This research emerges from the need to enlarge McCarthy and O’Dell’s (2004) scope from purely criminal behavior to police investigative actions. To do so, we relied on a corpus of 504,124 running words made up of spoken dialogues extracted from the script of the American TV series Castle shown on ABC since 2009. Based on Rudzka-Ostyn’s (2003) cognitive motivations for the particle up, we have identified five different meaning extensions for our phrasal verbs. Drawing from these findings, we have designed pedagogical activities for those L2 learners that study English at the Police Academy.

Genres of the American Tv Series

The American television series had grown enormously in recent years, both qualitatively and quantitatively , but the notion of genre has maintained its centrality . The multiplication of channels and distribution platforms has created a diversification, but just to allow an orientation in an increasingly broad offer both for those who create the series and the audiences , the system still use the genres although reworked and re-encoded . Through the analysis of authorial series such as True Detective , Fargo and The Knick, this article addresses some of the major trends that are going through the American tv series production from the point of view of the reworking of the genres.

WTF! Taboo Language in TV Series: An Analysis of Professional and Amateur Translation

This paper focuses on the topic of censorship associated with the use of strong language and swear words in the translation of contemporary American TV series. In AVT, more specifically in Italian dubbing, the practice of censorship, in the form of suppression or toning down of what might be perceived as offensive, disturbing, too explicit or inconvenient, still remains a problematic issue. By focusing on two recent successful TV series - Girls and Orange is the New Black – which are characterized by the use of strong language (swear words, politically incorrect references) and the presence of taboo subjects (homosexuality, sex, drugs, violence) – this study will consider the different translation choices applied in dubbing and fansubbing. Previous academic studies have underlined the fact that professional translators tend to remove, more or less consciously, the disturbing elements from the source text, while fansubbers try to adhere as much as possible to the original text, not only in terms of linguistic contents but also in terms of register and style. The results of this analysis seem on the one hand to confirm that there is still not a systematic set of rules that govern the translation of strong language in dubbing, and on the other to indicate that the gap between professional and amateur translation is perhaps becoming less pronounced.

The free zone: Gang dynamics, de-differentiation, and pseudo-statehood in The Wire

This article scrutinises concepts of deregulation against the backdrop of the ‘New Capitalism’ as presented in the episode ‘Hamsterdam’ in the American TV series, The Wire: when the major in charge of the Western District of Baltimore secretly decides to pull the police force from the war on drugs in order to re-dedicate their energy to police work proper, he de facto legalises drugs in a specific quarter of his district. Read through theories of statehood and sovereignty, this episode sheds light on self-perception of gangs within an ailing communal system, and on the difficulties with which the protagonists of The Wire constantly grapple, shifting the focus from the seemingly self-sustaining microcosm of West Baltimore to the superstructure that presupposes and enables the mechanisms of Baltimore’s public sphere.

Seismic Relationships

This paper considers the dangerous and heated issues that often underlie outwardly happy relationships. Just as the earth can be unpredictable and smouldering under its calm surface, many relationships between couples have deep fissures that bubble up with unexpected force, often in the consulting room. I present a case study of one such couple and consider the parts played by unrealistic expectation, idealisation, denigration, previous hurts and fractures, and cultural background. I also illustrate the paper with snippets from the American TV series Mad Men, looking particularly at Don and Betty Draper’s marriage. Don has a false identity, both literally and metaphorically, and the facts of his earlier life, including his name, are completely unknown to his wife. My premise is that when most couples become attached, it can be an attachment based on primarily unconscious needs and expectations of each other, especially when they have explored and divulged very little. Our role as psychotherapists is to help each member of a couple begin to share their inner lives while maintaining hope that their partner will not use the information shared as a weapon against them.
 Waitara
 E aro ana tēnei tuhinga ki ngā kaupapa morearea, hahana hūnaia ai e te whakaatanga manahau i rō noho tahitanga a te tokorua. Pērā i te matawhatiwhati o Papatuanuku, he maha ngā whakararu noho puku nohonga ā tokorua pahū ake ai i roto i te rūma akoako. E horaina atu ana he mātai takitahi o tētahi tokorua rite ki tēnei ka whakaaro i ngā wāhanga whai wāhi atu ki ngā autāia rerekē, monoa, pēhitanga, mamae inamata me te ahurea. Ka whakaatahia hoki i roto i te tuhinga ētahi maramara kōrero o te Pouaka Whakaata Amerikana Mad Men, aronui atu ki te noho moehanga o Don rāua ko Betty Draper. Ā tuhi, ā kupu whakarite he teka te tuakiri o Don, ā kore kore ana i mōhiotia ngā meka o tōna whakatipuranga, me tōna ingoa e tōna hoa wahine. E kī ana au, inā piritahi he tokorua, he whakapiringa pupū ake ai tēnei mai i ngā wawata me ngā hiahia rehu tētahi ki tētahi, inarā kāre nei e taki mōhio pai ki a rāua anō, ā, taki noho puku ai. Ko tā tātou, tātou ngā kaiwhakaora hinengaro mahi, he āwhina i ngā tokorua nei ki te taki whakaatu i ō rāua kare ā roto ki a rāua anō me te mau whakaaro kāre te hoa rangatira e whakamahi i ēnei kōrero hai werohanga atu.

How to Use Genre-Based in the Foreign Language Classroom: With Reference to the American TV Series, Forever, Season 1, Episode 2

The purpose of this paper is twofold: 1) to suggest how to systematically memorize practical expressions in a U.S. TV series and 2) to suggest about...

The Impact of Watching Captioned TV Series on Vocabulary Development of EFL Students

<p>Second language development could be achieved through various teaching and learning processes; however, applying multimedia technology has facilitated this process. This study aimed at examining the effect of captioned TV series on developing vocabulary knowledge of EFL students. There were forty intermediate male students learning English in Shokouh institute of Nowshahr, Mazandaran, Iran. The classes were held two sessions a week. The participants were randomly selected into control and experimental groups. Before the experiment, a 20-item vocabulary matching test was conducted as the pre-test. The vocabularies including in this test were chosen from a TV series in order to investigate their knowledge of vocabulary. After the pre-test ‘Friends’, An American TV series, was shown to both groups. English captioned episode was shown to the experimental group and non-captioned episode to the control one. After that, a post-test was conducted to examine the development in each group. Both independent and paired t-tests were carried out. The results of this study revealed that the participants in experimental outperformed those in control group in terms of their vocabulary development. The findings may be shared with other teachers in order to inform how captions affect the vocabulary learning of Iranian EFL students.</p>

Caixas de memórias: a relação entre objetos, fotografias, memória e identidade ilustradas em cenas da ficção

This study aims to analyze the relationship between objects, photographs and memory from an interpretation of scenes from fiction. It is common that, over a lifetime, people keep things, representing certain periods and moments of their lives, souvenirs from travels, other people, etc. The cases analyzed are two separate productions, a film and a television series but both have several aspects in common, and the main point is the existence of the characters’ “memory boxes” and their relationship with them. These boxes represent the character’s identity. They have small objects, photographs and documents that induce memory evocation. First, we analyze the movie Le Fabuleux Destine d’Amelie Poulain (2001), in which the character’s life changes after she finds a box hidden in her home. Then analyze the episode “Male in the Mail” from the American TV series Bones (2012). In this episode, the main character Booth receives a box that belonged to his father, who has recently passed away. Therefore, Based on this examples we can say that, even in fiction, these memory boxes demonstrate the strong relationship between objects, photographs, memories and identity. Keywords: objects, photographs, memory, boxes of memories.

팬과 소통하는 영상작품의 사례 연구 : 컨벤션(convention)을 적극적으로 이용하는 TV 시리즈 <수퍼내추럴(Supernatural)>

Into the 1990s, there have been changes in perception of pop culture consumers by making a distinction between groups that are active, critical and creative. This study aims to establish a theoretical reasoning for conventions organized and participated voluntarily by fans, which has been especially noticeable in the American subculture for a long time, while investigating how fans and all the parties concerned interact at conventions then to expand the imaginary world. To this end, an analysis has been carried out on the conventions for the particular American TV series of Supernatural. The results show that the reason for this drama series maintaining such enduring vitality as if a living thing is attributable to the special bond of sympathy developed between fans and actors and the following interactions between them. Furthermore, in the aspect of cultural sociology, a piece of work can only be completed through unconstrained interpretation of the work and the resultant recreation by the creator and the receiver, which has been ascertained by this study.

Science for food: Molecular biology contributes to the production and preparation of food.

Almost 200 years ago, his study of pea plants enabled Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–1884) to discover the laws of inheritance and launch the science of genetics. Now, advances in cellular engineering, synthetic biology, molecular biology, food science, and other technologies are shaping a new world of food preparation, inspiring researchers and renowned chefs to fill the bellies of epicures and the masses. These new technologies not only help to satisfy sophisticated palates but could also address larger problems in food supply that result from increasing population numbers, global climate change, and dwindling natural resources. > Switch on a modern cooking show and you will see chefs using molecular techniques such as freezing in liquid nitrogen or compression cookers Walter White, the high school chemistry teacher turned drug lord in the American TV series Breaking Bad, often said: “Respect the chemistry”. Professional chefs at high‐end restaurants are respecting not only the chemistry, but also the biology when they add the naturally occurring enzyme transglutaminase—known on the street as “meat glue”—to bond different meats together to create new dishes and dining experiences. Meanwhile, mass‐market food chains and providers of food to institutions such as hospitals, universities, schools, or prisons use transglutaminase to stretch their provisions and control costs by bonding together scraps of meat into larger portions. “The pro is you can have all kinds of interesting restructured meat. You can use bits and pieces and put together a steak or a roast”, said Joe Regenstein, a food scientist in the College of Agriculture and Food Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA. “The negative is that because you're putting together pieces of meat, you have to have very high sanitation. If you're undercooking meat, you have the potential for bacteria to get inside the meat. In general, most regular meats are sterile, …

On <em>Shtisel</em> (or the Haredi as Bourgeois)

On Shtisel (or the Haredi as Bourgeois) Yaron Peleg (bio) Shtisel. 2013. Created by Uri Alon and Yehonatan Indursky. Produced by Dikla Barakai and Yonatan Aroch. Israel: Yes TV. The proliferation of shows about Israel’s various religious communities has been one of the most notable changes in television programming in Israel recently. In the last decade such shows have been crowding Israeli TV screens, exposing viewers in increasingly more nuanced ways to parts of society that were until fairly recently uncharted TV lands. The tipping point was probably the hit series Srugim, which ran for three seasons between 2008 and 2012 (Yes TV). Focusing on the love lives of religious singles in contemporary Jerusalem, the show was a sexless version of the popular American TV series from the late 1990s and early 2000s Sex and the City, an innovation that speaks for itself, as I discuss in my article included in this issue. Indeed, the marriage of religion and love—pun intended—seems to be one of the most successful recipes for updating the otherwise “unsexy” image of religious people in Israel, and probably elsewhere. It has also proved to be a commercially viable way to make politically problematic communities popular, at least in some ways. The popular television show Shtisel, the latest evolution in religious television programming in Israel, is a good case in point, because it deals with Israel’s most strictly religious group, the Haredi or Orthodox community, and exemplifies the dramatic changes in the perception of Jewish religiosity in the Jewish state. [End Page 113] The winner of the Israeli Academy Awards for Television best TV drama series in 2013, Shtisel focuses on the personal lives of members of an ultra-Orthodox family in the religious neighborhood of Me’ah She’arim in Jerusalem. The innovation of the show comes from the fact that it is a usual show about fairly unusual people, the Jewish Orthodox community in Israel. In other words, the drama series takes religious characters, omits most of the controversial issues associated with them, and presents them as so-called regular people. Moreover, the show focuses on the love lives of its characters, which include a widowed father, Sholem Shtisel (Dov Glickman); his young and good-looking bachelor son, Akiva (Michael Aloni), who is in love with the slightly older and twice-widowed Elisheva Rotstein (Ayelet Zorer); Sholem’s married daughter, Giti Weiss (Neta Riskin); and Sholem’s old mother, Bube Malke (Hanna Rieber, who died after the first season was completed). The fact that love preoccupies Shtisel’s cast of Orthodox characters is obviously aimed at the show’s secular viewers. Similarly, the presentation of the religious world on the show as restrictive seems like another reflection of secular rather than Orthodox sensibilities. Although the show is named after the widowed patriarch and follows his relationships with members of his family, the main focus of the show is on the youngest son, Akiva, and his tortuous love life. When Akiva falls in love with the twice-widowed older woman Elisheva, he pursues her despite pressures from his family and community to marry a virgin his own age, and even despite being rebuffed by Elisheva herself. Having been married twice before and having had a son with one of her previous husbands, Elisheva is reluctant to get involved again. Although the show is not focused exclusively on their relationship, its ups and downs comprise the series’ dramatic core. It is here, at this romantic juncture, that the show engages in the kind of cultural exchange I mentioned earlier. Matrimony in the Orthodox world is a practical arrangement that has little to do with romance. It is preferable, of course, that the couple like one another, but it is by no means a requirement. Eligible young singles are expected to make their decision after meeting once or twice, which allows them little time to develop any meaningful feelings. Akiva goes on an awkward date with an “appropriate” single woman in the show’s very first episode. The meeting is off to a bad start when he realizes the woman he meets is humorless. But the date fails completely when he learns that she...

"You're My True Vessel": Knowledge and Digital Fan Culture Discussed on the Basis of Mediumship and Possession in Supernatural's Narrative and Fandom

Portrayals of mediumship in modern Western television narratives need to be seen as part of a broader phenomenon of the presence of religious elements in Western media, a phenomenon I argue expresses a longing for grand narratives in contemporary Western society. The portrayal and mediatization of religious elements in television narratives as well as their discussion in digital fan culture are part of what I would call a transformation process of knowledge and in particular knowledge of religious phenomena. More specifically, digital fan culture allows for an engagement with discursive transformation processes of knowledge and thus influences what is perceived as knowledge in society. Therefore, religious studies needs to pay closer attention to television narratives and the way fans interact with these narratives to create knowledge about religious practices. This article focuses on how the elements of “possession” and “mediumship” are being transformed by the US American TV series Supernatural and its fan culture. I argue that we can see at least two transformation processes here: the transformation and transplantation of religious concepts and practices (in the case of this article the idea of the human body as spirit medium) into a television context, and the transformation of these concepts and practices through digital fan culture. In its discussion of fan culture, the article looks at and analyzes fan based websites and how they present, discuss and imagine the body-medium.

A antessala de Siegfried Kracauer e Cees Nooteboom: Memória, história e imagem

Taking as starting point the novel All Souls’ Day from the Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom and History - the last things before the last, from Siegfried Kracauer , this article aims to reflect the relationship between memory, history and image and the impact of new technologies on ways of seeing and reading. The memory and the subsequent parallel drawn by Kracauer between philosophy and history, art and photography/film will be addressed, taking into account the current situation of the digital age and mobility where television is seen, little by little, as a mere support. From the explosion of the American TV series True Detective to the English Black Mirror, the article seeks to re-read the Cult of Distraction, published in the Frankfurter Zeitung in the mid-20s of the last century. Relations between the historian of Kracauer and the main character of Nooteboom’s book also come to the foreground in Wim Wenders' angels, men with wings, historical literary monsters.

Ficción audiovisual y procesos de percepción en estudiantes universitarios de Argentina y España. Una investigación empírica. S

Differences among audiovisual perception in university students are researched by the assessment of emotional impact or mood changes in university audiences upon watching a chapter of a well-known fiction TV series. A group of Communication Sciences students from the Buenos Aires Austral University (Argentina) and the University of Valencia (Spain) were asked to complete both pre- and post-test analytical questionnaires on a chapter of the popular American TV series The Walking Dead.

Open Your Eyes Wider: Overexposure in Contemporary American Film and TV Series

Meme si l’on trouve des emplois realistes de la surexposition au cinema, la surexposition semble toujours avoir une valeur symbolique, fonctionnant comme un code cinematographique qui traduit l’exposition a « l’autre » et a des etats-limites du corps ou de la conscience. Parce que l’exposition et la surexposition semblent donc liees a une esthetique du choc et de la revelation (extatique ou traumatique), l’exces de lumiere pointe souvent egalement les limites de ce que nous pouvons regarder en face. Finalement, sur un plan reflexif, si la surexposition cree un effet hypnotique, l’exces de lumiere reactive aussi notre conscience du cinema comme artifice, dans une variation contemporaine sur les allegories baroques de la vie comme songe.